mike wallace

Hewitt is probably best known for creating 60 Minutes and ushering in the genre of the TV news magazine show. He also produced The CBS Television News in the late 40s and later The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. He also directed various TV shows and specials, including See It Now (Grant Heslov played Hewitt in the 2005 movie Good Night, and Good Luck), Presidential Timber, and One Plane, One Bomb, and even produced the first Presidential debate on TV, Nixon vs. Kennedy.

On Sunday, Michael Vick will be interviewed on 60 Minutes in hopes of showing contrition, making a case for his NFL comeback and generally doing as much PR as possible to rehabilitate his image. The former Atlanta Falcon quarterback and NFL poster boy is pretty desperate to get back into the league -- and the money that comes with it.

Michael Vick, as you probably know, was once the highest paid quarterback in the NFL. He was on the cover of magazines and was considered an unstoppable force on the field. Off the field, however, he was running an illegal dog-fighting business. He spent most of the last two years either in court or in prison for his involvement in a syndicate that promoted gambling and killed dogs.

According to Wallace's son, Chris, host of Fox News Sunday, the heart "is working fine," but he added that his 90 year old father is done with TV. Does CBS know that for sure? I mean, will there be no future Mike Wallace interviews or special interviews? He retired from 60 Minutes in 2006, but remains with the network as Correspondent Emeritus. Chris made it sound like there will be no more TV ever for Mike Wallace.

He also said of his father, "He's doing really well," having spent time with him while he was in New York at Fox's studios to report on the presidential primaries.

"As much as I grew up in CBS and as much as I associate that anchor chair with Walter Cronkite and the history of broadcasting, I have never been so happy as I have working the last four-plus years at Fox. I suspect I've had a much better last couple of years than Katie Couric."

A new column here at TV Squad, where we talk about all of the things you're missing when you hit fast forward on your DVRs.

This week, I'd like to talk to you about Cheerios.

Specifically, I'd like to talk to you about the Cheerios commercial that has been running for several months. You know it. It's the one where the dad is going to eat Cheerios for six weeks to lower his cholesterol and his son has six weeks to do a report on Shakespeare. I have a question about this particular ad, which seems to be on 33 times a day right now.

The 89-year-old Wallace, the oldest of the 60 Minutes correspondents, is recovering nicely, according to a CBS News spokesperson. The spokesperson added that the Correspondent Emeritus was already taking his first steps just two days after undergoing the procedure. Man, this guy is tough! It is unknown at this time if the surgery was planned or done after a checkup revealed an issue.

"I remember watching a documentary, I believe it was about Rod Serling, & on it was mentioned a Western series the producer had developed, starring Lloyd Bridges & Brock Peters. Any idea what this show was called? Or, was it maybe Gene Roddenberry's show? Thanks for the help! Steve Atwell"

(S05E18) And so ends a short, inconsistent, Family Guy season. I don't know if we should chalk it up to Seth MacFarlane being spread too thin with American Dad and The Winner to watch over, or just the show coming up on 100 episodes. Something just wasn't quite right at Family Guy HQ this season though.

Odd headline over at the Asbury Park Press. It says ""60 Minutes Has No Plans To Replace Bradley," but then in the article there's a quote from the show's executive producer, Jeff Fager, where he says "It's a long-term project to find the next full-time person who can show the abilities that are expected of a 60 Minutes correspondent."

Sounds to me like they do have plans to replace Bradley, but not until next season.

But what's the big deal here? Did we really expect that 60 Minutes can just lose a top reporter and not replace him? And I hate the word "replace" anyway, like he just kept a spot warm and now they're throwing another person in there to take up the spot. Bradley himself won't (and can't) be replaced, he was unique. It's his duties that will be done by someone else.

Katie Couric just broke into CBS programming with the shocking news that longtime 60 Minutes journalist Ed Bradley died this morning of leukemia. He was 65.

I use the word shocking because I don't think there was any public indication that Bradley was sick from leukemia.

At the time of his death, Bradley was still working on 60 Minutes, and stories that he was working on still remain to be aired at a later date. He had been with 60 Minutes for 26 years and won several awards, including an Emmy, a Polk, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and a duPont citation.

Just after Mike Wallace "retired", he re-signed with CBS as a correspondent emeritus. But he told reporters that "there's an understanding that I'm not going to be getting on airplanes and flying all over the world, but there are going to be certain important interviews I will do for 60 Minutes."

Well, it looks like he was right about everything except the flying part; on Tuesday, Wallace went to Tehran to interview Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which will be broadcast on the venerable newsmagazine this Sunday. This interview is one of the few that Ahmadinejad has granted to a Western journalist, and, as one would expect, he criticizes President Bush and his administration's dealings with the country, among other topics. It seems like evil despots like to talk to Mike, since he's spoken to Saddam Hussein and the Ayatollah Khomeini in the past.

Possibly. Sources say that the veteran newsman isn't happy with the way CBS execs are handling his contract negotiations, and he has told people he's "on strike." Not literally on strike, just not happy with the way things are going. Then again, he told the New York Daily News that he's honoring his contract, there has been no work slowdown, and he even taped a new opening for an old piece (the show is in summer reruns right now).

My guess? There are contract negotiations going on, but I'm sure Bradley is working the same way he always has, and the press is just trying to find juicy stuff to tease with about a longtime TV personality (shocking the press would do that, I know). The NYDN even tries to get him to talk about his contract, and he says he doesn't discuss his contract with anyone. I think that's the right response to that question no matter what the situation. I really doubt Bradley is walking around the CBS offices with a donut, talking to people in their cubicles, not doing any work, going back to his office to pout and play solitaire on his computer until producers give him more money.

At 7, ABC has the two hour season finale of Extreme Makeover, followed by the two hour season finale of Desperate Housewives.

CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, followed by the season finale of Cold Case, a repeat CSI: Miami and a repeat CSI: NY.

NBC has a new Dateline, followed by the new disaster sequel, 10.5 Apocalypse.

Over on FOX at 7, two repeat eps of The Simpsons, then the season finale, then the 90 minute season finale of Family Guy (which is actually just that Family Guy movie that came out on DVD a while back).

The WB has two repeats of Reba starting at 7, followed by the series finale of Charmed and a repeat Charmed.

On a new Emeril Live, the chef cooks up some hot dog recipes. It's on Food Network, of course.

PBS has a new episode of Mystery! Check local listings.

At 9, HBO has a new ep of The Sopranos, followed by a new ep of Big Love.

At 9:30, VH-1 has a new ep of Hogan Knows Best, followed by a new reality show, Supergroup.

In-your-face television journalist Mike Wallace answers some tough questions on this Sunday's edition of 60 Minutes. The 88-year-old news veteran is retiring from the program and revealing a lot about his personal life, including the revelation that he attempted suicide 20 years ago. He had a roundtable discussion with fellow 60 Minutes jouralists Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Leslie Stahl and Morley Safer, who got his old friend to open up about his battle with depression. Wallace also says that, since his suicide attempt, his life has been better. It's not clear whether he admits how he tried to kill himself.

The retrospective, called I'm Mike Wallace, airs Sunday at 7 pm on CBS. It also includes clips of some of his most memorable interviews.

Most people would agree that venerable newsman Mike Wallace has been an extremely influential force in TV news. Even in his late eighties the man is still well-respected. It seems, though, that his influence has stretched beyond mere journalism. During an in-studio performance and interview, singer Jack White of the White Stripes revealed that he got the name for his new band, The Raconteurs, from an article about Mike Wallace. The article described Wallace as a "raconteur," which means a person skilled at telling anecdotes. White apparently liked how the name sounded, and thus his band had a name. What still remains a mystery is whether Wang Chung got their name from Connie Chung.